Lovely Kendricks was a high school sophomore who spoke Chinese since she was small, according to her parents. “She was a light,” her mother,  Dorris Moore, told a local TV station.

Lovely, 15, was killed after being shot in a local park Monday, Oct. 10, 2022 in Columbus, Ohio. She was rushed in critical condition to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where she pronounced dead. 

“My daughter was so ambitious and over the top. She was amazing. She was ahead of her time,” her father, Clarence Roberts, told NBC 4.

The victim’s father has a message for the shooter:

“Turn yourself in, because I know you couldn’t have meant to kill that baby,” her father said, referring to his fallen daughter.

Since that time, Columbus detectives filed an arrest warrant for 18-year-old Roshawn Adkins Jr., in connection with the deadly shooting. Adkins has been charged with one count of murder, according to police.